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Bruins gather for one more Stanley Cup celebration; Marc Savard’s name will be on it

Marc Savard

Spectators are reflected in the sunglasses of Boston Bruins’ Marc Savard during a parade honoring NHL hockey’s Stanley Cup Champions Saturday, June 18, 2011 in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

AP

As training camp approaches, the Boston Bruins are in a unique position. Unlike other teams who lost quite a few significant players to salary cap-related departures, the 2011-12 Bruins shouldn’t be significantly different from their Stanley Cup-winning predecessors. They truly will be a defending champion next season.

One player who’s technically still on the roster but won’t get a chance to defend that title is playmaking center Marc Savard. The former All-Star forward has been all but ruled out from appearing during the 11-12 season, with legitimate doubts being raised about his chances of ever playing again.

That’s some horrible news, but there’s at least one silver lining for Savard, who’s battling post-concussion syndrome. CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty reports that Savard’s name will be etched on the Stanley Cup despite Savard falling a bit short of the common requirements for earning that honor. It’s unclear, however, if two other borderline players will also find their names on the silver chalice.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed the good bit of Savard news to CSNNE.com on Monday afternoon during the Bruins Annual Golf Tournament at the International in Bolton, Ma.

“Savard will be on the Cup,” said Chiarelli, who didn’t give any update on the chances of either Shane Hnidy or Steve Kampfer also getting their named etched on the Stanley Cup along with the rest of the Bruins.


Considering its close proximity to the beginning of training camp, that Monday golf tournament represents one of the last opportunities the team will have to enjoy that Stanley Cup victory this summer. Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand spoke about their great summers and the importance of moving on from that fantastic collective achievement and focusing on next season too.

“It’s awesome. Everyone was really excited to get back and sort of talk about different days with the Cup and how summer has gone. Now I think everyone is excited to have the opportunity to do it again this year,” said Marchand, who noted that his agent and the Bruins are working on a new deal every day. “It’s great to see everyone back, we’re having a lot of fun, we’re back with each other and we can’t wait to get camp going.”

(snip)

“It is (tough to stop celebrating),” Lucic said. “You want to celebrate. You could celebrate for the rest of your life. You want to just kind of keep the party going. But there comes a point where you have to say, ‘Hey, it’s time to step back and start focusing on next season.’ And obviously that point is now. And definitely we’re looking forward to having another great year with all the guys back. I think our main focus right now, it’s not even about thinking about making another run. It’s just about having a good season and making the playoffs.”


If the Bruins can keep that desire going and remain focused even with a target on their backs during every game because they’re champions, then this team could be in a great position next season. Relatively speaking, Boston was pretty healthy despite a deep playoff run and remain a very similar team.

Of course that doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to play like that 2011 playoff team.